


Burning Forests and Flooding Beaches

by Griffismycat



Category: Minecraft (Video Game)
Genre: Background DNF | DreamNotFound implied, Background Skephalo implied, Curses, Death, Demigod!Sapnap, Fluff, Kinda a Greek myth but not really, M/M, Mermaid!Karl, Self-Sacrifice, floods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-07
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-19 11:14:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29873811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Griffismycat/pseuds/Griffismycat
Summary: Karl is cursed by a God.Sapnap is the son of a God.Together they help each other heal, with time and patience. But they heal regardless.
Relationships: Karl Jacobs/Sapnap
Comments: 8
Kudos: 29





	Burning Forests and Flooding Beaches

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vreaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vreaa/gifts).



> KARLNAP FOR THE KARLNAP GODDESS ＿|￣|●
> 
> you give me Karlnap brainrot, and I humbly love it all, please continue. 
> 
> For real though, you are an amazing author and you inspire me a lot.
> 
> ALSO
> 
> I APOLOGISE IF THIS SUCKS I WROTE IT IN LIKE 6 HOURS?????? IVE LOST COUNT TBH PROOFREADING IS FOR LOSERS FO YALL BETTER BE READY FOR PAIN AND BAD SPELLING

Humans were odd.

Karl realized that soon after he was cursed.

They could climb, run, and talk with each other.

After his village was destroyed he couldn’t do any of that. 

Sure he could still talk to humans but they typically ran away screaming “SIREN!” when he came out of the waves. 

He used to be a lover of Poseidon. Then all of hell broke loose. 

One of Posiden’s children lost control of themselves, and Karl’s village paid the price.

Everyone he knew was wiped out. 

Poseidon had the audacity to ‘save’ and ‘bless’ Karl.

Instead, it was a curse to Karl. Instead of legs to run and climb they were replaced with a tail. It was beautiful, don’t get him wrong, in the right light, it was an amethyst with emerald specks mixed in. But Karl hated it, it was meant to signify beauty and grace, all it did was remind Karl of his loss, of his pain. Instead of lungs to breathe fresh air on the surface, made from trees and flowers, and other plants, he had gills, to breathe salty water made from his tears. Every time he breathed in he wanted to cry, he wanted to add to the salt in the water he breathed. It was meant to save him from a certain painful death, it instead reminded him he would never be able to breathe on the surface again. 

There was one human, though, who always came down to Karl’s favorite cove. He made fire, with his hands. He often came down to practice control. He was getting better every time he came. He always stayed for hours, creating fire and then putting it out. It was beautiful. Since Karl could never create fire, he loved to watch the boy, and he wasn’t an unpleasant sight to look at either. 

He had dark brown hair, though it was more black than anything, and it was always tied back with a white piece of fabric. The fabric always pushed his hair perfectly around his face. It was a sight to behold for sure. He was tan and built like a mountain. Strong, beautiful, sturdy, a sight to see. He had dark brown eyes that often look like a deep red wine, with sparks of orange and gold in them. 

It took Karl cycles of the tide, the only way to tell the time when he was deep in the sea, to go up to the boy. He was terrified to lose such a sight to fear. He was content to look at the boy from a distance. 

One day while looking at the boy, protected under the shallow rocks that were just under the waterline, the boy called out. 

“If you want to watch me you can come out from under there.” After a short pause, “if you can that is, I don’t know if sirens can breathe air. If you can’t that’s fine you can stay there too! I’ve just noticed you down there a lot and I wanted to introduce myself!”

Karl swam away. He couldn’t. The boy talked to him, something he wanted so desperately and he swam away.

He went back after the boy left. He waited until he was positive he was gone. The boy had left him bread and figs, something that was hard to come by in a seaside village. How this boy got the figs was another question added to Karl’s ever-growing list. 

He ate the bread and figs, thankful that he didn’t have to hunt for fish or eat seaweed when he inevitably failed. After staying in the oxygen-filled cave for as long as he could, he dived back into the water and went to a small cave under the cliffside to sleep for the night. He never stayed in one place, he couldn’t, it hurt too much when he inevitably got seen and hunted down.

After a few days, the boy came back, and Karl was there. He had spent the entire time getting himself ready to talk to the boy. He brought the prettiest seashells he could find on such short notice and tied them together with rope. He wanted to make up for the bad impression he left the last tide. 

When the boy noticed him he smiled. It was the most beautiful thing Karl had ever seen, and he had been with a god before. 

“Hi! I’m sorry if I scared you yesterday, I just wanted to finally meet you, cause I know you’ve been watching me for a while now. My name is Sapnap, whats yours?”

“Karl, here, I made this yesterday cause I felt bad about running away. Sorry about that. Normally when humans see me they scream ‘Siren!’ and run in fear away.” Karl laughed nervously. He hadn’t talked to anyone in years. 

“Well lucky for you I’m not human! I’m a demigod! Son of Hephaestus! Do you know who that is?”

“Yeah, I know about Hephaestus.” it was getting hard to breathe. He had to go, it was too much. “Listen I have to go, it isn’t your fault! It’s just dangerous for me to stay above water for too long!” Somehow getting that in one breath. It was definitely getting harder to breathe. 

“Oh, that’s okay will you be here tomorrow? Also here I brought more bread and figs! Do you even eat bread and figs? Or do you eat humans? Please don’t eat me.”

“Pff, I’m not a siren dummy, and of course I’ll be here if you're here I’ll be here.” he reached out with the shell necklace to trade for the food. Sapnap quickly realized what he was doing and put the food in a leather pouch. He liked Sapnap, more than he should for just talking to him for the first time. But Sapnap was the first person Karl had talked to in years.

He went back to his cave in the cliffside. He ate the bread and figs that were provided to him. The bread was soft and warm more so than it should have been, and the figs were sweet and crisp, they were delicious as the last time he left them. 

Karl had questions, but he was sure the boy, Sapnap, had his own. In time they could answer them, Karl was sure of it. He knew it was dangerous to talk to him, but Karl was a moth to Sapnap’s flame. Sapnap had to have put his hand on Karl and started a flame deep in him. If Karl was on fire then he’d happily burn alive. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The siren-merman, Karl, was at the small cave every time he went there to practice. He often stayed in the water and watched, occasionally popping up to ask a question or two. He was sweet and never asked why Sapnap never practiced with other people around, or why he only practiced down in the cave. 

He had gray eyes the color of the sky right before it was about to rain. His hair was the color of sanded down wood from shipwrecks, it somehow always managed to remain fluffy, while being wet and living in the sea. 

After a while, Karl came up more often to talk, about anything. He never asked Karl where he came from, or why he suddenly showed up in this cave. 

He always came here after the nymphs. He came here, not only to control his abilities but to cry, to think, to just exist. He had trouble after what happened. His friends stuck with him, but he was just so terrified he’d hurt them again. 

He wanted to stay with them, he wanted a hug from all of his friends and family, but he wasn't about to burn them alive. Karl was perfect. They never touched, Karl couldn’t stay above the water, and he couldn’t go underwater for too long. It would be hard to burn Karl if he was always wet or in water. 

Sapnap always brought bread and figs with him. Somedays they ate together, somedays they had to leave before the other. Karl always asked where he got the figs, and Sapnap always told him to not worry. 

One time when he went home his dad was there, in the main room. He couldn’t look at his own father. He hurt him. He hurt both of them.

“Hello Sapnap, how was your day? Where did you go today? What did you do today?”

“It was fine, I went to the cave, and I was practicing again. I’m trying to get better control so I don't hurt you guys.”

“Sapnap, we forgave you already. If you want help we can try and contact him.”

“I know, but what kind of demigod am I if I have to ask for help constantly? I can't go back to Chiron, I can’t go back after what I did.” He needed out. He couldn’t talk about this anymore. “I’m going to my room.”

“Okay, I hope you feel better. If your need anything you can tell us.”

Once he got to his room, he stood against his door. After a few minutes, he slid down and broke down crying. It was too much. He missed his friends. He missed physical touch. ‘

He fell asleep crying. 

After a few days, he went back to the cave. Karl was there. It was comforting. It was new, it was so much better than at home. 

They talked a lot that day. It was obvious that he was cried the previous day, so Karl asked questions. 

Sapnap answered all of his questions. One after the other. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's the story:

There once was a boy in a seaside village. He didn't do anything. He was a beautiful boy who was going to be used as a bargaining tool with other villages, for peace. He couldn’t be harmed in any way. He couldn’t have callouses on his hands, he couldn’t have scratches on his knees, he couldn’t have anything. 

Instead of being used as a tool for another village, he caught the eye of a god. 

The god of the sea was wandering the beach one day, and the mortal was picking seashells for his mother's birthday. 

The god gave him the most beautiful pearls from the deepest part of the sea. In return, the boy would return to serve the god.

And he did. 

One day the god brought his child. The child was a demigod. The child was ten years old. The god wanted to help the child learn his powers, he wanted to impress the mortal, to show off. 

The god was busy impressing the mortal. The child lost control. The ocean listened to the child.

The tide was high. The rivers had flooded the previous month and had yet to go down. 

The village was wiped out. The mortal along with it. Once the god calmed the child and the sea, he looked for his lover. 

His lover was dead, along with everyone he knew. His eyes had glossed over, his body cold and blue. 

The god screamed in agony. He pulled all his powers into the mortal. He made him part of his domain. 

The mortal was no longer mortal or human. He was now a monster made from grief and love. He wanted to stay dead, but because of the god, he couldn’t.

The god left him less than a year later. That's when he stopped counting the days. When he starting trying to go back to the surface. 

He never did. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here's a story:

There was once a demigod. He was born from fire and destruction. He had no family. Until two men came and took him in. They didn’t know what he was.

He made friends, a nymph made of mushrooms, and a boy made from the sun.

Once he burnt his one father. He felt horrible. 

His fathers forgave him.

He went to Chiron to learn about his powers, about his linage, about him.

The mushroom, the son of the sun, and the boy who had fire in his veins went into the forest. 

The boy lost control.

The forest burnt.

All of the nymphs, dead, gone. There was no way to save them. 

The mushroom feared the boy. The sun stuck with the mushroom. After years of begging for forgiveness, they became friends again. They never forgot though. 

The boy didn’t either.

He went to a small cave on the side of a cliff near his village. And he wept. And he practiced. And he burnt. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Karl loved the days Sapnap came to the cave and talked with him. He told him tales of his home, of his friends, of his experiences. Karl lived for those days. The world has changed so much since he had been cursed. When Sapnap told him his story, he didn’t understand. He felt sympathy, but he couldn’t feel the same. He had grief but not the same.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sapnap loved the days where he went to talk to Karl. It helped ground him. It helped him control himself. When Karl told him his story, he knew he couldn’t understand. He knew what he felt, but he didn’t know exactly what he felt. 

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After a year, Sapnap kept coming. He wasn’t Posiden. He stayed voluntarily with him for more than a year.

After one day of talking, Karl left. He told Sapnap that he would be gone for a few tides. Sapanp had gotten used to his odd language. 

Karl had made up his mind days before and had spent the following days convincing himself that he could do it. 

After he left he swam towards the deepest part of the ocean and screamed. He screamed to Posiden the god who made him what he was. He screamed for a new start. He screamed for the god to take back his curse and instead give him the blessing of legs. He screamed for the ability to be with Sapnap, without having to die. He wanted to breathe and be with Sapnap without either of them having to hold their breaths for as long as possible. 

He screamed into the void that never listened to him. He screamed to the god that abandoned him. He screamed for anything to respond.

And the void responded, the god came back, everything responded.

The god gave him his legs back, he felt sympathy. He always had, but a god could not take back a gift without replacing or making it a curse. He was one of the only gods to feel human emotion. 

The god took his consciousness away to not feel the pain of the separation of his tail, of the fusion of his gills to his neck, for his scales to become flesh.

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Karl had been gone for a week before Sapnap went on a walk on the beach. He had made up with the mushroom and the sun. He made up with his fathers. The three boys were walking on the morning of the eighth day. That’s when they saw the brown hair. Sapnap recognized it anywhere. He ran towards him. 

His friends questioned him but ultimately followed him.

He shook Karls's shoulder so much that he was afraid that his arm was going to come off. 

But it didn’t. Karl woke up and looked at him with his beautiful gray eyes.

“Hey, nimrod.”

“What did you do? What happened to your tail?”

“I traded it for a life with you.”

“But what if I hurt you? I couldn’t live with myself if I hurt you. Why did you do this?”

“I know you won’t hurt me. I trust you.”

\-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here’s a tale:

Two boys, both touched by the gods, suffered through lives that they feared and craved a connection with another person.

They meet over time. They fell in love with one another.

The one suck in the water gave his tail. The one with fire in his veins learned to control himself, as to not burn his lover. 

They were broken. They were shattered. 

They learned.

They healed.

They helped each other, they didn’t fix each other, but they were the rope to hold the broken vase together. 

They had their scars, but when the scars stung, they were kissed with understatement and adoration. 

**Author's Note:**

> LMAO I LIED I WILL WRITE MORE LMAOOOO GET RECETTTT LOZERZ
> 
> HOPE YALL READY FOR MORE FOOD IT ANIT GONNA BE OFTEN OR GOOD BUT ITS GONNA HAPPEN
> 
> comments and kudos are appreciated!!!


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